Saigon, February 22, 2001.
After work yesterday, Thanh (Aunt 10's driver) came by and picked me up in a car loaded with my aunts and Uncle Thai, husband of aunt 8 (from Orlando), and the whole gang went to my Uncle Minh (younger brother of my Dad's) house for dinner. There, we were met with a few other members of my dad's family, and I also met one of my cousins for the first time (whose sister I met two weeks ago at the Saigon Market). He had actually been to the States a few times for business, and has met Kaly before.

We had about six courses, most of which were regionally Hue, where my father and Uncle Minh are from. Hue was the last Imperial city of Vietnam whose imperial courts were served by my paternal grandfather (who passed away around 1950). Dinner started with rice noodle cakes (banh hoi) with ground shrimp sprinkled on it, followed by a crab & quail-type egg (I don't know what kind of eggs they were) soup, then a kind of sea bass served with vegetables and white sauce, continued with pepper sauteed crabs (cua rang muoi) which are about 2x the size of U.S. crabs, and finished with a plate of steamed rice mixed with multiple marinated meats and vegetables, then che for dessert which I passed (I think it is made of lotus seeds). Hue is renowned for its foods and especially for the presentation of foods. Because of its imperial history, the people of Hue are all sophisticated in the art of eating well.

We were then brought up to a room in the house complete with surround sound, projection screen, DVD, and VCD entertainment system which made up our karaoke evening (which didn't last too long, as all the aunts wanted to head out for some live music elsewhere). I have discovered, however, that karaoke is a great way of learning how to read vietnamese -- the words are highlighted as they are sung aloud, and if I keep up, I could be reading in no time (I am now able to read with about 80% accuracy, though I don't understand what I'm reading).

I cabbed it home from dinner (I had enough live music for one night), and took note of the enormous luminated neon billboards that shine across the Saigon River visible from District 1. Saigon is split into several districts; 1 and 3 are the most commercialized (District 1 is where my aunt's Dong Du Cafe is and I work in District 3). Saigon is much more commercialized than we imagine in the west. The billboards read Mercedes-Benz, Heineken, LiOA Cable, LG Electronics, Tiger Beer, and others. In the middle of the city, there are neon billboards for Pepsi, Philips (as in the electronics), and many other big name brands. It is starkly contrasted with the people who lie beneath them on the roads.

Thanh drives me to work every day, and if we leave early, he takes me on the Honda (all references to Honda henceforward and backward are two-wheeled motorbikes even if they're not Hondas) which I love riding although I can't help but to think that it shortens my life expectancy as cigarette smoking would. Saigon is incredibly polluted. Today Thanh got to go home to see his wife & four kids who live an hour and a half away. He sees them in the middle and end of the month for 3 nights/2 days at a time. Since we had the wedding on the 17th of the month, he did not go home and will take 4 days off now instead. My aunts and mom are all going to Ha Noi and Ha Long for 4 days and I was supposed to go with them, but will not this time, mostly because of work, but also because I don't think I can handle the lot of them for 4 days straight since they are so very loud and collectively indecisive. I have opted to go at a later time with my uncle Tony if possible, and I'm planning on going to Phan Thiet, my mom's birthplace, in mid-March when The Guide goes to print, and before my mom returns to the U.S. This way, I also get to spend some peaceful time with my grandmother this weekend, and I will be having lunch on Sunday with my cousins Dung & Lily who are my Uncle 2's daughters. I got invited to a wedding on Sunday by a sweet girl at work, but will pass since I don't think I'd be comfortable yet and since Uncle 2's family is coming into town.

Oh, my odd sighting of the day today was this morning when Thanh drove me to work. In front of us was a Honda, and hanging on either side of the rear of it were two brown wicker baskets, hanging much the way bike panniers would, connected by a wooden bar stretched across the seat, like a scale or balance. In each basket were about 6-8 white feathered ducks whose heads and bright yellow beaks and black beady eyes stuck out, each piled upon the other, and all very crammed in the baskets. All of a sudden, I realized that not only were they real, they were alive and quacking. I wish I had a camera to take the shot, but then I also realized that they were probably off to be roasted by afternoon (sorry Lori).

Enough for today. Tomorrow the aunts go out of town, and Thanh has arranged for another driver to come pick me up in the morning to take me to work. I'm looking forward to the peace and quiet this weekend will bring, and plan on going into town and taking lots of pictures. Do keep writing me. I love hearing from you, and please forgive if I cannot write back.
Oh, and another discovery -- Sai Gon is really two words.
Much love
Hani